


Hopeless

by ABrighterDarkness



Series: Kisses Bingo [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Best Friends, Gen, M/M, Platonic Cuddling, Pre-Relationship, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:15:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26068564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ABrighterDarkness/pseuds/ABrighterDarkness
Summary: “You’re hopeless, Rogers,” she teased. “Actually, from the sound of it, you’re both hopeless.”
Relationships: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson
Series: Kisses Bingo [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1885117
Kudos: 21
Collections: Kisses Bingo





	Hopeless

**Author's Note:**

> Just because I have a huge soft spot for Steve and Nat's friendship :D
> 
> Kisses Bingo square G3: Cheekbone kisses | **Gentle shoulder bump**

Natasha was giving him  _ the look  _ again. And, as always, Steve could feel the heat climbing over his face and ears in response to that particularly knowing expression. Because she clearly  _ knows, _ of course she knows, she’s  _ Natasha. _ But Natasha being Natasha means that she’s inevitably waiting for him to say it anyway.

“Come on Steve, spit it out,” she smiled, one of those genuinely teasing ones.

“I just,” he groaned and tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling for a moment. His shoulders slumped in resignation only to climb nearly to his ears as his head ducked down again, avoiding her eyes as he nodded. “Okay, yes. Yes, I-I like him, okay? A lot.”

“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” Natasha teased fondly.

Steve huffed an embarrassed laugh and shrugged, rubbing awkwardly at the nape of his neck. Letting his hand fall back into his lap, he sighed. “You wouldn’t think so, huh?”

Natasha tilted her head consideringly, leaning to the side until her shoulder pressed flush against his in a show of support. “It’s harder when it’s real, isn’t it?” She said thoughtfully. “When it’s just for show or not about ourselves, it’s easy. It’s different when it’s an actual truth.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. 

It was a different sort of vulnerability. Steve was nearly positive that he preferred the physical vulnerability of walking onto a battlefield without his shield or back up and weaponless over this. Though, he supposed that if there was any person in the world he trusted this sort of exposure to, it was likely the woman sitting next to him. “I don’t know. I guess it’s just that, you know, after everything...I really didn’t think that this sort of thing was possible anymore. That I could even, I don’t know, interested in anyone like this. No one’s really even caught my attention since the ice, well, present company excluded.”

Natasha snorted softly in amusement.  _ That _ had been an entertaining conversation for both of them. But all things considered, Steve thought his fleeting crush was more than justified. The woman was as lethal as she was gorgeous. And she had just taken a running jump off of his shield and  _ let him launch her into the air _ in the middle of battle with hardly a blink. Add on that he had been newly awakened and fumbling through a bizarre new world. Really, it was no wonder that someone like Nat would have been able to snag his attention. Not that he hadn’t blushed something awful when he had finally confessed it, once they had settled into the true friendship that they had developed. Her startled laughter had made the mild discomfort of the confession worth it, though.

“Clearly that’s not the case,” she pointed out, thankfully not taking the moment to tease him further.

“Apparently not,” he agreed with a small smile. “I just don’t want to mess it all up. So, before you ask,  _ no _ I haven’t said anything.”

“You’re one of the good ones, Steve,” Natasha smiled. “Even in your most adorably clueless moments, you’re too genuine to run the risk of really ruining anything.”

“You don’t know that, Nat,” Steve countered. “I mean, Sam got out right? He walked away from it to take care of himself and suddenly I show up dragging him back in. How’s that a good start for anything?”

“Adorably clueless,” Natasha huffed. “Steve, you didn’t drag anyone anywhere other than Hydra to the bottom of the Potomoc. In case your super memory has somehow forgotten, Sam volunteered to help us. You even gave him an out and he didn’t take it. Not even when the bottom fell out and maybe an ounce more of self-preservation should have sent him running. I don’t know about you, Steve, but that sounds like a pretty good start to me.”

Steve nodded slightly in acknowledgement but frowned. “But this isn’t about going into battle. Taking down the bad guys. It’s different.”

“Didn’t he stay at your bedside the entire time you were in the hospital?” Natasha asked pointedly.

“He did,” Steve admitted.

“And that weird little play list game that you keep telling me isn’t flirting?”

“Because it’s not,” Steve huffed. It wasn’t, was it?

“Uh huh,” Natasha laughed. “What’s that phrase you two keep tossing back and forth and giggling like schoolboys?”

“On your left,” Steve muttered, face flushing hotly as he began to feel slightly guilty about the fondness all the little things Natasha pointed out was drawing forward. All the little things, the interactions that already had him so far gone on Sam Wilson and completely at a loss on what to do about it. 

“You’re hopeless, Rogers,” she teased. “Actually, from the sound of it, you’re both hopeless.”

Steve laughed softly. That wasn’t the first time Natasha had made that particular type of comment. He could admit that she wasn’t wrong either. While he wasn’t as hopelessly naive as people seemed to want to make him out to be, he was pretty hopeless when it came to navigating through the ever evolving social dynamics. But then again, he had never been very good at understanding those.

“Yeah, maybe a little,” he admitted with a wry grin. She laughed softly, her shoulder bumping against his affectionately. Natasha nudged him again, pointedly this time. As she shifted, Steve lifted his arm high enough to let her lean comfortably into his side, her head resting against his shoulder once he dropped his arm around her.

The silence that settled around them was easy and comfortable. Steve liked that the most about his friendship with Natasha. That they could settle into silence just as easily as they could talk frankly and honestly. There was no pressing need to fill the quiet with inane conversation, no need to be ‘on’ if they didn’t want to be. 

“You should tell him,” Natasha said quietly after a while, eyes staying closed and expression relaxed.

“Yeah,” Steve agreed. “Yeah, I know.”


End file.
